Top 5 Childhood reads | World Book Day

Today is unequivocally the best day of the year … because it’s WORLD BOOK DAY. I used to love receiving my £1 book voucher and heading to Waterstones (Or Ottakar’s as it used to be) to pick up a new book! Some of us in the UKYA book blogger community have decided to group together and organise a blog hop (Follow #WBDwithUKYA on Twitter to see everyone’s posts, or – follow through the links below!) We’ll all be chatting about our favourite childhood reads, so get ready to go on one hell of a nostalgia trip!

Reading for pleasure is so important for kids – especially those who don’t usually gravitate towards reading as much.

I wasn’t the kind of kid who was super, super into reading. I spent a lot of time outdoors on my BMX, climbing one particular tree outside my house and generally getting myself very muddy. However, as a pre-teen there were a few books that I absolutely loved.

As this is a blog hop, make sure to check out Shaye @ A Reading Brit and Nikki @ Books and Lemon Squash for their Top 5 childhood reads, too! Without further ado … here are my fave most nostalgic childhood reads!

1. Midnight for Charlie Bone series by Jenny Nimmo

A lot of people’s first fantasy series they loved was inevitably Harry Potter, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t actually read good ole Hazza P until later on as a teenager. For me, The Charlie Bone Series was e v e r y t h i n g. I absolutely loved it.

The premise is that Charlie, at 10 years old, discovers he has a special power; he can hear voices in photos. I loved it so much that I wrote my own 100% plagiarised spin-off story about a boy that could talk to animals.

I don’t actually know if I ever finished them (there are like 8 books) – but I remember reading the first ones over and over. This was also the first series that I started recommending to my friends in middle school – I remember letting one of my friends borrow the first book. For me, this series was the start of my love of reading and I’ll forever be grateful for Charlie.

2. Horrid Henry by Francesca Simon

Horrid Henry is 100% a guilty pleasure of mine *shifty eyes*. Even to this day, I have been known to watch episodes of my favourite boy wreaking havoc on his family and his school.

I read all the books, and then I read them again. I loved how mischievous Henry was. I was a terrible child (any of my family will second this) – I didn’t do as I was told, and when I discovered Horrid Henry, I probably behaved worse. I still loved him and his charmingly terrible ways though.

3. Midnight by Jacqueline Wilson

As many others also were, I was introduced to Jacqueline Wilson through my absolute love of the TV series Tracy Beaker. I used to annoy my sisters endlessly by changing the channel to CBBC when I got home from school, so I could catch up with the latest episode. However – I don’t remember ever actually reading the books!

However, from there I found Midnight. I don’t know if I loved this book because one of the main characters was called ‘Jasmine’ – probably, although I definitely also loved the story. It’s a book about sibling relationships, families and fairies. Violet liked to make fairy dolls based on a book from her favourite author, and her brother used to torment her for it. Looking back, I think I loved how Violet was showing passion about things she loved, and really felt for her. This is also one I read over and over and completely loved.

4. The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter

I have so much nostalgia for this one – we used to read the Peter Rabbit books at my Gran’s house before bed. She had all of the books in a little shelf and we would pick one to read. I was such a terror as a child (as already stated in the Horrid Henry section 😂), but I used to love looking forward to picking up a book and reading it together.

5. The Twits by Roald Dahl

And finally, The Twits. Everyone has a particular Roald Dahl book that has stuck with them and for me, it was The Twits. They were so twisted, and so cruel to one another, but I loved reading about all the mischievous, nasty pranks they played. It was horrible, but I also couldn’t look away – it made me want to be nice so that I didn’t turn into Mr or Mrs Twit when I grew up!

And that’s my list! I had such a fun time going back through my books and remembering the stories that made me fall in love with reading. If you want to reminisce even more about childhood books, be sure to check out both Shaye and Nikki’s blogs who are both posting their blogs today.

What books did you love as a child? Do you seen any faves above? Let me know!

I was reading The Twits today with the children in my class; they all loved the bit with worm spaghetti in particular! Personally, my favourite book as a young boy was The BFG, which grew into The Hobbit a bit later.

Love this! Confession time, I didn’t read Harry Potter properly till I was well into high school. As a kid I was obsessed with A Series of Unfortunate Events, I can remember by grandparents taking me to the bookshop and buying a couple for me, which was the hight of excitement at the time (and probably still 😂). Happy World Book Day, Jaz!

The Twits will forever be one of my favourite books, I used to pretend they were my older brother and sister (I love them really). It’s just just a fun book and my copy is so battered I may have to replace it at some point

Ah I remember Midnight! I don’t recall whether I finished it or not but I remember having it because I loved the cover! Beatrix Potter’s books are so lovely! I feel like they bring back memories for so many people!